The uproar seemed to have started in full by the time Lori had cut through the dome and reached the hill that contained the demesne's only dragon shelter. The technically-still-functional but currently-inactive mine had a well-worn path to it nowadays, and someone had even taken the time to take some of the flattened river rocks and arrange them into steps at some points of the path. The entrance to the mine itself was a pair of thick doors—open at the moment—that was the first of three in the corridor leading inside. Each set of doors was meant to be barricaded with the thick wooden beams and the pile of large rocks in the alcove that had been hollowed out next to them.
A stone grate was set above the outermost door, its panels recessed and arranged so as to not let light out, and would hopefully prevent small, flying dragonborn abominations from realizing the grate was there and entering the dragon shelter. Unlikely, but it was a hope. The second door had nothing of the sort above it. If Lori hadn't known it was there because she'd been the one to make it, she'd have missed the stone grate set into the ceiling between the first and second doors.
Lori ignored those for the moment, walking deeper into the mine. It wasn't long before they reached the demesne's secure food storage. Two men were there, standing alert and no doubt having heard them coming. Next to them, a rudimentary bound tool—a wisplight—was glowing, powered by an unmarked wispbead. They relaxed slightly when they saw it was her, both of them making hasty and awkward bows. "Great Binder," they both said as they straightened. There was still some of the hesitance in their calling her that, but they acknowledged her as their Dungeon Binder—despite Shanalorre still being alive—and obeyed her orders, and that was enough.
"We have a dragon coming," Lori said without preamble. "Double check the inventory and make sure the water's been replaced and filled." That's what they were supposed to do in the event of a dragon, but they might need reminding. "Take the wisplight with you and close the door. I need the mine to be dark."
The two former militia—or were they properly active militia of the demesne now?—stiffened in alarm, but thankfully, they made no comment about the last order. "Yes, Great Binder," they said. One picked up the bound tool while the other opened the food stores.
"And be more careful with that!" Lori snapped. "Those are hard to make!"
The one who'd picked up the bound tool sighed, but moved it with more obvious care, not letting it hit anything.
"You two, go help them count and close the door behind you," Lori said. "Erzebed, go back to the entrance and give me some warning when people start coming here. Doctor, go with her."
"Yes, Great Binder," Riz said. "Come on everyone, let's get out of the Great Binder's way. Deil, Tackir, once you're done, take over guarding the food so that Yhac and Vill can help their families with packing everything."
Oh, those where their names! She remembered now.
As much as Lori wanted some light to work with, that would be counterproductive. She took a deep breath, drew on the magic from her core, sent it out through her lungs and throat, and claimed the darkwisps around her.
It didn't take that long to claim and bind all the darkwisps in the mine. Lori gathered all the darkwisps together, compacting them and anchoring them into the alcove past the third door. She waited a moment, then went back to claim all the darkwisps that had taken the place of those she had bound.
She repeated this five more times, combining all the darkwisps she'd gathered into a single binding. This wasn't something she'd had to do in her own demesne—Lori took a moment to check her demesne through her connection to her core, and found the darkwisps she'd claimed and bound earlier still in place, Rian not yet giving the signal—but without a connection to River's Fork's core, she needed to claim any wisps she needed herself, and that meant going where they were.
Once she felt she had enough darkwisps for what she needed, Lori finally collected some lightwisps from outside the mine and anchored them to her staff for light so she could check on the shelter's bound tools… and the beads meant to imbue them.
The alcove behind the third door was larger than the other two alcoves that came before it. Those alcoves only contained wood and stone for barricading the doors against dragonborn abominations. The third alcove, however, had been excavated to make space for the things that would be needed to keep the shelter protected. Most important of these was the receptacle for the bead that would imbue the bound tool that would keep them supplied with fresh air, and the similar pair of receptacles that would imbue the shelter's active defenses… such as they were. All the receptacles were still in place, and thankfully no one had decided to put rocks or any anything else inside them.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Lori put one hand on the metal contact for the air intake that pulled in fresh air from the ceiling grate. Through the metal contact and the wire connecting it to the very crude bound tool, Lori could feel airwisps anchored to it that comprised the entirety of the air circulation system. They were still in place, still bound despite not being imbued, and she resisted the urge to deactivate the binding and imbue it with a little magic to keep them from dissolving. It wasn't needed.
"Great Binder?"
Lori looked up at the voice. "What is it, Erzebed?"
"We have people gathered outside to go into the shelter, and Clowee is ready to go with all the rest of the demesne's children," her temporary Rian reported. "Several people are asking to go with the children."
"Refuse them and send the boat on its way."
"They might object."
"Be emphatic. As to the rest who are behaving, tell them to go to the area that's designated as a shelter and stay there. No wandering in the mines. The sooner we can seal up the mine, the safer I'll be. Get back to me as soon as you finish. Leave the emphasis to someone else."
"Yes, Great Binder."
As her temporary-Rian left, Lori walked over to what at a casual glance might be mistaken for a badly carved stone bench. The stone was uneven, creating six large bumps. A slightly less casual and more imaginative observer would think that it was instead six squat pots covered by a dirty canvas, until they drew close and realized it was stone and not fabric. Lori touched one of the bumps in questions, curling her fingers so her nails touched stone, and claimed the earthwisps there. Her claim spread from the points of contact, and she formed the earthwisps into a binding.
She softened a segment of the stone, thinning the already thin material even further in various places before dissolving the binding. Taking her staff, she struck the places she had thinned. The stone broke, falling off what it had been covering: a knee-high, cloudy white perfect sphere, sitting in a mild recess to keep it from rolling around.
Lori carefully rolled the oversized wispbead towards the receptacle that had been made for it, moving it slowly and making sure she had both hands on it at all times. If it got away from her, it would roll all the way down deeper into the mine, and she did not want to have to try and recover it.
Wishing she already knew how to use Mentalism so she could just pick up the bead with her thoughts, Lori maneuvered it into place onto the metal contact. Immediately, she heard air moving as the bound tool began sucking up air through the ceiling grate between the first and second doors. As ventilation systems went, it wasn't much. It relied completely on getting fresh air from outside, and in addition to leaving a weakness that dragonborn abominations could enter through, any noxious vapors in the air would be drawn in as well. Still, it was better than the certain death of stuffing more than fifty people in a cave and sealing the doors. The method had worked in her demesne so far…
At least this time she had a means of mitigating the dragonborn abominations trying to get in through their air vents… which she really should have thought of sooner, but she thought of it in time for this, so that was all right!
With the oversized wisp bead in place, ready to power the crude bound tool for a week at the least—she hadn't really tested how long the bead would last but that was mostly because there hadn't been time—Lori slid the wooden panels that would prevent people accidentally kicking it out of position or putting anything on top of it into place. Once that was done, she took a moment to check on her demesne again, searching for Rian's signal. Nothing yet. Well, Lori's Ice Boat had probably only just left to go back, so Rian would probably wait for that to return. Still, there were some things she could do until then, and best she get what she could done, since she had little else to do. She hadn't wanted to risk bringing her almanac with her.
She waited for Riz to get back before she allowed herself to her get distracted, though she made herself comfortable on the long niche built into one wall of the alcove next to the receptacles. Unfortunately, she didn't have her bedroll, but her pack had enough clothes to make for a functional pillow, and she could use her rain coat as a blanket. It would be like when she first started living in her Dungeon by herself again.
That had been a miserable time. The only thing that would make things as bad was if she'd be sleeping on a pile of sand. It had seemed like a good idea at the time and a stupid one since.
When Riz got back, there were people behind her, being led by someone carrying one of her wisplights. They glanced at Lori sitting in the alcove behind the third door, but continued on deeper into the mine, towards the shelter area next to the food storage.
Lori ignored them, focusing her attention on her temporary Rian. "I need to arrange some of our defenses back at home," she said. "Stay here and make sure no one bothers me." A pause as she recalled something, then amended her order. "Make sure no one bothers me unless the dragon is starting to pass over us, or everyone is inside the shelter. Can you see it already?"
"A little, Great Binder," Riz said, moving to lean back against a wall so she could see Lori and the stream of people entering the mine carrying packs and sacks and jars and blankets and other things, her spear on the crook of one arm. "There are dark clouds high, high in the sky behind all the other clouds, flashing with dragon claws. It makes it hard to tell how far away it is in overland distance. Do… do you know if it means anything that the clouds are orange and green?"
"It means if they mix they'll turn brown." High in the sky? That… would probably explain why it felt so strangely distant, if there was a greater vertical distance compared to the previous two she had felt… "Keep an eye out while I'm configuring Lorian Demesne's defenses." Ugh, she hated that name. It will always be Lori's Demesne in her heart.
"Understood, Great Binder."
Lori lay back on the flat surface of the stone niche, again wishing she had a bed roll. Well, it was still better than sand. Adjusting her pack behind her head as a pillow, she closed her eyes and began securing her home against a dragon's passing.